Bird Work at Wellesley College 53 



stitute the justification of the course, and form the mainspring of 

 the methods of procedure, it must be confessed that when the time 

 for action comes, pedagogical motives fly to the winds, and our only 

 desire is to make other people see how much they miss by having 

 no acquaintance with these friends. After all, if one really knows 

 the birds, does not that signify all the rest ? They themselves are 

 the best educators, they are their own most eloquent advocates. 



The chief aim being, then, to know the living bird, the greatest 

 emphasis rests on field work. The -walks' form the characteristic 

 feature of the course. Once or twice in the early spring the girls 

 by turns go out in squads of 8 or g with the instructor in charge, 

 and when the warm days of May and June arrive, sometimes a 

 whole division of 25 to 30 moves out of doors for its class appoint- 

 ment, to follow the sights and sounds of which those days are full. 

 Most of the field work goes on, however, independent of the 

 instructor, and so thorough is it that no Wellesley landscape in the 

 spring would be complete without somewhere a motionless figure, 

 gazing through opera glass intently into space. 



The outdoor work is likely to be vague unless steps are taken to 

 render it definite. One device which may be adopted is the use of 

 charts for guiding and recording observations. We employ at 

 Wellesley three such charts : the first presents and names the vari- 

 ous colors with which the ornithological student needs to become 

 familiar : the second deals with the seasonal distribution, showing 

 in a graphic way the times of arrivals and departures ; and the 

 third is used as a check list. This last one, ruled in squares, con- 

 tains at the top the names of the members of the class, and at the 

 side the names of the birds which occur within a radius of 5 to 10 

 miles from the college as a centre. Each girl enters in the column 

 below her name, in line with the name of the bird which she has 

 seen, the date of her observation. Before she completes the course, 

 she must have identified in the field a certain number of species. 

 This total varies, of course, with the changing conditions of different 

 seasons : last year it was 40, — a small number, it is true, but small 

 because experience had shown that it is better to demand fewer 

 than the majority can see.* 



An excellent museum and an adequate library do much to sim- 

 plify the task of identification. Just outside the laboratory stands a 

 small case, in which are kept bird books, ranging from such classics 



* It may be objected that to make any requirement takes away from the interest and spontaneity of 

 the work. This, however, is not the case, as is proved by the fact that while pressure must exist 

 for the few, it is needless for the majority, who observe more than the number fixed. To forego one's 

 morning nap is not merely heroic, but is, in the case of many who do it, indicative of genuine interest 

 in the subject. 



